Study shows climate effects of wind power causing local warming

(Photo
by VCG/Getty Images)

• Using wind power to generate the electricity the US needs
  could cause a surprising amount of local warming, according to a
  new study.
• But wind power would still help the world stop pumping carbon
  dioxide into the atmosphere, which would fight climate
  change and global
  warming.
• There’s concern that fossil fuel interests might misuse this
  idea to argue that renewables aren’t as essential as scientists
  who study climate say they are.
• But it’s important to fully understand the strengths and
  weaknesses of renewables to make the transition away from fossil
  fuels go as smoothly as possible. 

If the world is going to avoid
catastrophic climate change, we need to stop consuming fossil
fuels and start getting power from renewable energy sources —
including geothermal energy, biofuels, hydropower, solar farms,
and wind — as soon as possible. 

Wind is particularly appealing, as it’s
one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to generate
electricity. But that doesn’t mean wind power doesn’t cause
any potentially concerning side effects, according to a study
published today in the journal Joule.

If we were to build enough wind plants to supply all the
electricity used in the US — the power we use when we flick on a
light switch or charge our phones, though not what’s used to fuel
cars or make steel — all those churning turbines would actually
change the flow of the atmosphere above.

That heat redistribution could warm the regions near the wind
farms by about .24 degrees Celsius. It’s a significant amount.

In other words, generating power with wind still has effects on
climate. But that doesn’t mean it’s causing climate change,
according to Lee
Miller, a postdoctoral fellow working with the Keith Group at Harvard
and the coauthor of the new study, along with climate and
geoengineering researcher David Keith.

This warming effect is a local effect, as Miller told Business
Insider. That’s different from the global warming and climate
change caused by burning fossil fuels.

“Even with renewable technologies there are some climatic
impacts,” Miller said. Still, he said this is not a reason to
stick with fossil fuels — and he fears that people who deny
climate change could misuse the new study.

“I have no doubt that these results will be misconstrued and
misinterpreted,” he said.

Wind
turbines would disturb the atmosphere, causing warming in some
places and cooling in others. Maps are 3-year mean of perturbed
minus 3-year mean of control for 2-m air temperatures, showing
(A) entire period, (B) daytime, and (C) nighttime. The wind farm
region is outlined in black, and, for reference, presently
operational wind farms are shown as open circles in
(A).

Miller
and Keith, Joule, 2018

Wind versus coal — and why seeing the benefit could take some
time

Right now, global temperatures are climbing because fossil fuel
use pumps carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere. This modified atmosphere acts like a blanket,
trapping more heat on the planet. As that process continues,
scientists expect serious consequences, including the extinction
of species, searing deadly heat waves, ocean acidification, more
intense and rainy storms, and rising sea levels — all reasons to
move away from fossil fuels.

For their new study, Miller and Keith used data collected from
existing wind farms to design a model that assesses the effects
of more wind power. To generate current US electricity needs,
about one-sixth of all energy use in the US, Miller said we would
need about 16 times the wind power we use now.

But putting wind farms in ideal places (as seen in the map above)
and having them all running simultaneously would perturb the
atmosphere above. The changes in circulation would lead to
temperatures immediately overhead about .24 degrees C warmer.
That’s about 10 times the effect you’d see if you got that power
from solar farms, the authors calculated.

Still, since these changes redistribute heat (not adding heat to
the system like burning fossil fuels), other regions might see
cooler temperatures on average.

The overall effects would be a mixture of good and bad.

In the wind farm region, the growing season might be extended by
a couple of weeks, because nighttime freezes would be less
likely. But pests might also start to emerge earlier and
disappear later in the season. There might be more evaporation,
but also more precipitation. And there could be ways to offset
some changes too, like not running turbines as frequently at
night, when they’d cause more warming.

“Even with renewable technologies, there are some climatic
impacts. If we can understand those climatic impacts before
deployment, maybe there’s a way adjust them or amend them,” said
Milller. “Ideally we know as much about them beforehand, and
then learn as we build out.”

Turn all those turbines on immediately, and there are warmer
temperatures. But over time, the benefits start to build. For
every year people are drawing power from turbines instead of
fossil fuels, less CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere. That has a
long term benefit for future generations.

Matt
Cardy/Getty Images

Winds of controversy

The issue with publishing research like this is that fossil fuel
interests might try to use it as evidence that switching to
renewables isn’t as urgent or important as the vast majority of
experts think it is. 

“It’s a huge concern,” said Miller.

His argument is that we should fully understand the positives and
negatives of every source of energy we use, and that shouldn’t
take away from the understanding that moving away from fossil
fuels needs to happen. That’s not unlike scientists who believe
that vaccines are safe, effective, and important,
but still conduct controversial studies to try to improve
them, sometimes highlighting side effects or weaknesses.

“All forms of energy have externalities, they have their pluses,
they have their minuses,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research fellow
at the Energy Institute and the Webber Energy Group at the
University of Texas at Austin. “We should look at strengths and
weaknesses.”

As Miller explains it, we need all the information we can get if
we’re going to make the transition to renewables work.

“Hitting these big renewable energy targets I think is going to
be a lot more challenging than most people appreciate … there’s
a lot to be learned as we head down that path,” he said.